Is anything really new? Or does every innovation already exist, waiting to be put to use? Perhaps the future is buried in the past. Could it be possible that there are vast treasures of brilliant ideas lying hidden in the vaults of antiquity? History shows that turning an idea into reality can take centuries. Many inventions patented today are based on concepts from earlier generations that required scientific advancements that did not occur for many years. What sparks creative inquiry? Plato observed that – necessity is the mother of invention. Was he right? What role does war play in technological advancement? For example, do we know for certain that US Army Signal Corps cryptographers and mathematicians actually invented the first computation machine? Could the great-great-grandfather of today’s laptop have been pulled to the surface in an ancient chest off the coast of Greece? Thomas Edison observed that – discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. This thought-provoking television program explores whether a discovery is really just a very old idea waiting to be uncovered.